Depression, Body Image, and Societies expectations, in the Eyes of a Female Distance Runner.
Society is composed of the members of a community, and their expectations and beliefs of what people should be. The factors that influence these beliefs include race, age, gender, and even what people like to do. I identify as a 16 year old female distance runner. Personally, I feel that society uses my passion to make me feel insecure about my body.
There is always a specific body type portrayed on social media and in magazines that is seen as desirable. It's ever changing, and usually geared towards women. Right now, this body type is being “thick.” Being thick means having big thighs, wide hips, and an extremely tiny waist. If you search online you’ll find countless articles promoting this body type. They are titled “Get Thick Quick”, “Ditch the Treadmill Now” and “7 Reasons to Quit Cardio.” This makes it apparent that society believes people run to lose weight or to look a certain way.
This is certainly not the case for me. When I was younger, I began running for the same reason other kids start a sport: to be with my friends. As I grew older, I fell in love the art of distance running. The more miles I ran, the happier, healthier, and stronger I felt. At mile 8, 9 or 10 in a run I would achieve “runner’s high” and feel completely separated from the world, while at peace within myself. I enjoyed running this way for years, until last September. I developed a prolonged case of sinusitis and continued to feel sick for months. 13 doctors and 16,350 mg worth of prescription pills later, I was diagnosed with chronic headaches. Running then became my outlet from the pain, and the reason I got out of bed in the morning. Through the tangle of weekly appointments, brain scans and blood tests, one of my doctors told me I had restless depression as a complication of these headaches. This is when I began to use running as a coping method for treating my depression, and the anxiety that went along with it.
I wanted to see just how much of an influence running can have on coping with mental health, so I looked for a study online. There was an experiment conducted at Rutgers University, to test the effects of cardio on those who were depressed. The researchers gathered 22 people that were diagnosed with depression, and 30 healthy individuals. They took scans of both group’s brains and discovered that the depressed group had a deficiency of brain cell activity in the prefrontal cortex. The prefrontal cortex is an area of the brain that controls focus and attention. I know from my own experience that depression is truly a jumble of symptoms, including prolonged sadness, excessive tiredness, disconnect, and definitely, lack of focus so severe that is keeps you from completing daily functions. For the trial, both groups completed 30 minutes of cardio twice a week, for 8 weeks. At the conclusion of the trial, both groups reported an increase in mood, energy, and focus. The researchers took another set of brain scans and surprisingly, the depressed group had a huge boost in brain cell activity in their prefrontal cortex. Even more amazing, their scans now were nearly identical to the healthy group’s. This shows that running not only helped me cope, but it is scientifically proven that it help treat depression.
It’s obvious to me that society puts appearance first because of the things people have said to me. I have been told “cardio kills gains”, “running is gay’, and “you would look so much better if you didn’t run.” That last statement is hilarious to me because I know that if I didn’t run, maybe i’d weigh a few pounds heavier, but my face would be sad and pale, I would have deep circles under my eyes from sleep deprivation, and no muscle. Sadly, I once heard a teammate say,”I would never want to look like a distance runner.” This shocked me, because when I picture a female distance runner, I see a girl with extremely strong legs, that knows how to move. My teammate’s comment made it apparent to me that society has instilled in women that only a certain appearance is beautiful. I can't can't speak for all the women in this room, but I know that being critiqued over my size is another headache I certainly don't need.
Society truly has put how you look above how you feel. Mental health has taken the back burner to appearance. If can share one piece of knowledge I've gained from my own journey, it's that everyone has a story and a reason they do the things they do. If I could change one thing about society, it would be that the only body type that is “in” is the one that you makes you feel good in your own skin, mentally and physically. Until this necessary change it made, I will continue running away from society and its chronically twisted views.
- @_nicolerizzo ( Nicole Rizzo )
